Jambiya craftsmen encouraged to substitute rhinoceros horn with garnet [Archives:2008/1212/Health]

Ismail Al-Ghabri
and Alice Hackman
Jambiya craftsmen, concerned authorities and academics this month attended an awareness-raising workshop on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), during which experts urged craftsmen to replace rhinoceros horn with alternative materials in their daggers.

The workshop, organized by the General Environment Protection Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), aimed to promote conservation-friendly international trade in wild animals and plants so as not to threaten their survival, and to introduce alternatives for illegal materials such as the rhinoceros horn used in manufacturing traditional Yemeni daggers or jambiyas.

“The over-exploitation of animals and plants for the purpose of trade has led to the extinction of some species and to the endangering of others that will become extinct if not protected by all groups of society